What would you do if you’d gone 35 years without changing a flat tire on your bike?

On Wednesday, I decided to call an expert.

Mike Watkins and his small business — Roundabout Cycling, a mobile bike repair service — had just been featured in our local paper earlier this week. I told him I didn’t trust myself to do it right after three decades, and Mike promised to come out, fix my flat tire and give my bike a general tune-up, too.

While we were on the phone, Mike said he’d be happy to educate me so that I could do it all myself next time. “I don’t mind giving my knowledge away,” he said.

Did you catch that? “I don’t mind giving my knowledge away.”

This guy really gets it, I thought to myself. I was sold. Didn’t need to hear anything else.

Mike came out yesterday. He spent an hour with me in the garage and driveway, walking me through the tire change, teaching me how to adjust the brakes, tune the derailleur, do something called “wheel truing” and even showing me how to loosen and tighten the spokes on the wheel. (Confession: I didn’t even know you could loosen and tighten spokes.)

When he was finishing up, I told him it was fascinating and incredibly educational.

“Now you can do it yourself next time,” he said.

“I’m still gonna call you next time,” I said.

How To Pour Concrete

Story No. 2: We’re going to be adding some rock beds to the landscaping here at Casa McGee, and I have a specific vision: I want the rock bed to have a thin, concrete edging. All of the lawn edging products at Home Depot are ugly and plastic and not what I want. But a nice, thin concrete strip all along the bed will be perfect.

I figured I’d buy some quick-drying concrete at Home Depot, dig up the space myself, pour the concrete and put the rocks in. Not easy, but something I could do myself.

I went to Beaver Bark, a local garden center, to price out different kinds of rocks. Right on top of the rock display, I found exactly what I needed: a brochure titled “Redi-Mix Concrete.”

When I got home and opened it up, this is what I found: (click for larger version — seriously, do it)

That’s more about making a concrete patio, not edging, but it took less than 30 seconds for me to figure out that this is not something I want to do by myself.

Beaver Bark gave its knowledge away — told me exactly how to do what I want done — and convinced me not to do it myself.

The Marketing Lesson for Small Businesses

If you provide a service based on skill and expertise, giving your knowledge away will attract customers.

I guarantee it.

I’ve been preaching this for years, and some small business owner will always object this way: “If I tell people how to do what I do, they won’t need me to do it.”

Actually, in the vast majority of cases, I bet as soon as you tell people how to do what you do, they’ll realize it’s better for them to hire you to do it, rather than try it themselves. Sure, there are some really great D-I-Y types out there — people that would pick up that concrete-making brochure and decide to do the work themselves.

Guess what? Those people, the D-I-Y types, were never gonna hire you in the first place.

But the rest of us, people like me, are gonna see your expertise and realize it’s a better investment than trying to do something new ourselves.

Mike the bike repair guy summed it up perfectly: “I don’t mind giving my knowledge away.” He’s gonna do very, very well with that attitude.

You will, too.

Share your knowledge: start a blog, create white papers, do an online guide explaining how to do what you do, find other ways to position yourself as the expert. And — as long as you really are an expert and good at what you do — your phone will start ringing. Promise.

Comments (1)

Great post and I couldn’t agree more. I own a landscaping company and I would say having the knowledge and being willing to share it creates a key competitive advantage over others in the field that have not caught on to this thought process yet.